Nate Berkus, Shaunna West & Shelly Andrade – ha!

01 Dec Nate Berkus, Shaunna West & Shelly Andrade – ha!

Hi everyone. Just in case you’re wondering where I’ve been… I’ve spent the past 2-1/2 months battling some kind of lung infection. My allergist said I have a really bad case of a viral mycoplasma pneumonia that’s taken it’s toll recently in our area, especially for those with asthma.

My primary ordered a cat scan which showed a small nodule and some granulomatous changes in my lungs, whatever that means. The nodule doesn’t seem suspicious but I have to get cat scans every six months from here on out. Doc referred me to a pulmonologist for further testing, said something isn’t adding up and is most concerned with the exposure I had to asbestos almost 30 years ago – great.

Anyway… I’ve been feeling lousy and I was having a really bad day a few weeks ago so I grabbed a hot cup of tea and curled up in my La-Z-Boy after the kids went to school. I read the night before that one of my favorite blogging friends was going to be featured on the Nate Berkus Show. How cool is that?

I turned the TV on and and there she was, Shanna West from perfectly imperfect! You can watch the video of it here. I was all geeked, so excited for her to have this opportunity. Shaunna is such a sweetheart; just the sweetest gal with the most adorable Southern accent.

Shaunna is one of the very first people I ran across when I started tossing around the idea to paint furniture. I admired her style so much, I purchased her eBook – “Creating Your Masterpiece” on painting furniture. It was Shaunna’s inspiration that tipped me over the edge and gave me the courage to jump in and take the plunge.

A couple days later, I came across Shaunna’s blog post called “All Things Furniture Chalk Paint Features” and I thought to myself, “self” wouldn’t it be cool if someday Shaunna featured my work? I’m scrolling on down and all of a sudden I see the top of my blue mahogany dresser. No joke! My heart missed a few beats. Shaunna featuring MY work? Wow!

Still beaming from ear to ear, I continued reading only to discover she also featured not one but two of our pieces; our Provence blue dresser AND our Emperor’s Silk red buffet!

Are you kiddin’ me? Two of our pieces? I was ecstatic!

Both pieces have been featured numerous times across the web recently. The ironic part is, I wasn’t happy with how the finish turned out on the red buffet. I ended up redoing the whole piece and had it back to the store just in time for the Christmas Open House.

Shaunna also wrote a post called “Chalk Paint Cost and Why I Use it”, where she again showeded my Provence dresser – yeah! You can read her post on that here.

I’ve been working so hard trying to get my business up and running so it means the world to me to have someone in her position recognize my work. Thanx Shaunna! Stop by and check out her amazing blog “perfectly imperfect” here. You’ll love it!

Since this post, I’ve learned so much. I worked countless hours almost a year using these products but continued to have difficulties achieving a quality finish with their wax. I tried other several other waxes by different companies, some were hard, other’s were a little easier to blend in and work with but also had those terrible fumes. I experienced months of reoccurring respiratory problems starting as soon as the weather got cold here and I had to start working within my workshop. Even with my exhaust system, I was advised to remove all the chemical hazards from my environment and find another line of work or find green products to work with in an effort to get well. I replaced toxic, hand burning, chemical strippers with citrus based strippers (which work better anyway), pulled chemical laden paints, waxes, glues… and started searching for better products.It was during that search that I discovered CeCe Caldwell’s all natural, eco-friendly chalk and clay based mineral paints. It’s 100% Naturally Green ~ wahoo!! and I was geeked to find out that it’s owned and operated right here in the USA.

From the first time I tried CeCe Caldwell’s paint and wax, I fell in love. I know that sounds so dramatic, but after everything I went through, It was a God send. This line is so much easier for me to work with; it’s so different than any other paint I’ve ever used.For my style of painting, I can achieve a much more superior finish and can create it much faster eliminating the stress of working so hard to achieve something that’s easy with a chalk and clay mixture. I have so much faith in CeCe Caldwell’s line that I became an Authorized Retailer for them. I carry a complete line of CeCe Caldwell’s Paints, Clear Wax, Aging Cream, Satin finish, brushes, color charts… locally at our Shizzle Design space within Not So Shabby Antiques and Fine Furniture in Holland, Michigan here as well as online on our Online Shizzle Shophere. Shizzle Design offers all 36 colors in quarts as well as sample size pots. You can learn much more about CeCe Caldwell’s amazing products by reading through my blog archives in the sidebar.

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5 Comments

I am so sorry to hear that you have the yucks! I was so excited for you when I saw your pieces on Shaunna’s blog! They are both stunning! Plus, I follow your blog and I just thought that was kind of awesome. Feeling happy for you, I scrolled down a little further and there was my hutch! I seriously almost wet myself! So, ummmm, ya. I get it. Congratulations! Feel better soon!

I’m so glad you are starting to feel a little better. I hope the doctors can get to the bottom of what’s going on and FIX it! :0) I missed you while you were feeling so lousy!

I’m just thrilled that you’ve gotten so many features – you do such beautiful work, Shelly!

Wanna hear my tiny little thrill about the Nate Berkus show? Truly – it’s kind of pitiful…someone from the show bought one of my vintage ice buckets to use on a basement remodeling project. I was super excited! Of course – we have no decent tv at our house, so I never got to see the show with my little ice bucket!